We welcome media inquiries and believe transparency and open conversation leads to better public understanding of how our technology works. Below is our record of this inquiry, the questions we received, our responses, and a quick fact check of the published article as it relates to Patronscan.
| Publication Name
The Gazetteer |
Method of Contact
|
| Date Contacted
10 August, 2026 |
Contact Name
Cydney Hayes |
Questions & Responses
Questions are listed as received. Our responses below are the complete, unedited text of what we submitted.
Question:
Last Friday a spokesperson for two Castro bars, Badlands and Toad Hall, said they would stop using Patronscan devices after backlash from the Castro community about surveillance technology and privacy concerns. I’m writing up a short article with statements from the bars, and I’d like to get your responses as well.
- Was Patronscan aware of this?
- Have you spoken with the teams at Badlands and/or Toad Hall?
- Do you have a statement in response to this decision?
- Would you like to add anything to this statement you made in June addressing the Castro community?
We are hoping to publish this afternoon, so please respond by 2 pm PT.
Our Response:
Thank you for reaching out on this. We have been following the community response closely and we’ve appreciated the chance to engage in many productive, positive conversations, provide additional information on how Patronscan works, and reassure people on the limited use and retention of any information in our system.
We’re aware of the pause on these accounts and have been in contact with the venues to offer our support in providing whatever information or adjustments they need as they work through a review of their security practices. We respect their decision to complete this review and look forward to hearing how we can help.
There are a few concerns we’ve seen come up consistently from the community that we have addressed, and we want to take the opportunity to address directly again. Patronscan does not use facial recognition technology or collect biometric data. Information gathered from an ID scan is not sold to third party companies. And for our bar and nightclub clients in California, personal data for individuals not involved in a safety incident is held for a maximum of 21 days before being permanently deleted. Patrons can contact us at any time via our website to request a copy of their personal information held in our system, or to request the deletion of their information.
We continue to believe in the value of our system in creating safe spaces for people to meet, relax, and celebrate together in person. We recognize that part of our responsibility is to continue building public trust in and understanding of our system and that this can’t be done through privacy policies or media statements alone – we have to continue holding our team and our venues to the highest standards for transparency, ethical use of our system, and following best practices in privacy and data protection.
The venues investing in safety tools such as ours are doing so because they genuinely care about the people walking through their doors. We are always happy to support our clients as they try to do right by their communities, and we value the feedback we receive to continue building and developing Patronscan in a way that makes sense for the venues using our system.
Fact Check
The resulting article from this inquiry was published on August 10, 2026. The following Fact Check is only relating to statements directly relating to Patronscan, our technology or our operations. We’re not commenting on the broader article, its sources, or unrelated claims.
| AS PUBLISHED | PATRONSCAN’S CLARIFICATION |
We understand that news reporting is a challenge of gathering and presenting a large amount of information in a short, readable format. We publish all media responses here so you can read exactly what we said, in full. We believe open, fact-based conversation is the best way to promote understanding of our technology and the role it plays in venue safety. If you have questions or would like to speak with us directly, we’d love to hear from you at media@patronscan.com.